Timo Sarpaneva - Market

Market

Sarpaneva's artistically conceived design lines gained in resale value to the degree that forgeries became profitable. The Finnish police estimated the total value of the forgeries of his and some of his peers' designs reached millions of euros and expected it to grow. Occasional, partly tongue-in-cheek, criticism of some of the designs – that the versatile teak handle with the cast-iron pot would get lost, that white Suomi showed tea stains unlike classic British brown tea pots – did not undermine their appreciation. Historically, Christie's executives commented on growth in resale value especially with Sarpaneva's glass creations for the Italian Venini company. Older objects from the same series would be more valuable, for instance, an item from the first year of the Kajakki (Kayak) series, which ran from 1953 to 1959, might fetch 50% more than the same object from the last year of production. Bargain hunters occasionally reported high returns, including the purchase of a Sarpaneva glass plate for 25 cents in a garage sale, which turned out to have a resale value of US$1,000.